


Interlude (with Bonus Bullet to the Head)

by Lucifuge5



Series: Zombie!verse [3]
Category: due South
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-03
Updated: 2010-06-03
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:48:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucifuge5/pseuds/Lucifuge5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coming full circle doesn't always mean coming out on top.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interlude (with Bonus Bullet to the Head)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Akamine_Chan.

Ray Vecchio turned off his computer and picked up the phone. "Tell Tito and his men I'll see them shortly." He leaned back into his (thankfully) comfortable leather chair as he mentally prepared himself for whatever his goons were so eager to show him. Today had been a long day just like the day before this one and the day before that one and so on. He would have never thought that his Armando Langoustini gig would extend to the point of infinity.

But then again, no one had thought about the possibilities of zombies throwing a giant wrench into everyone's lives.

The soft knock coming from behind the door startled him. "Signor?"

"Oh, Gino." Ray pressed a button. "Come on in."

An old man carrying a tray gave him a quick smile. "Your three p.m. espresso, Mr. Langoustini."

Ray returned Gino's smile. He picked up the cup of coffee and let himself unwind for a couple of breaths. Sometimes it was easy to slip into the Bookman persona, intimidating thugs and keeping the city as safe as he could. On days like today, however, he would have given everything up just so that he could savour a plate of his mother's cooking. "So, who's out there?"

"Massimo and Tito." Gino leaned close to Ray. "Massimo is _handcuffed_ to a cooler."

He snapped his fingers, his mind going over all the possibilities. "Tell 'em to come in."

"Signor." Gino curtsied and promptly left the office.

Not a minute had gone by when Massimo "Sleepy-time" Gallo and Tito "Three-toes" Bianchi half-shuffled in.

He stared at them the way a tiger would a gazelle. "So?"

Tito stepped forward. "Buona sera, Signor Langoustini. I hope we haven't disturbed your—"

"To the point." Just as he expected, Tito grew a little meek.

"Yes, signor. Well, we've brought you the head of that woman you had targeted two years ago." Massimo's thick fingers gripped the container that much tighter, almost like he didn't want to open it.

"Is that a fact?" Ray considered what he had just heard. It had been, what, five years since he had tried to bring that Metcalf bitch down with his own gun? That Benny had eventually forgiven him for shooting him instead was something that he was still grateful for nowadays. He threw them a softball. "_They_ told me she had relocated to Maine." The truth was that by the time his position as Langoustini became a solid reality—after the zombies started to pop up all over the place—he had other things to think about.

Massimo and Tito exchanged a look. Tito spoke up. "Someone must have given you wrong information, Signor Langoustini. She tried to make contact with Salvatore as recently as two weeks ago."

_Finch territory._ He crossed his hands in front of him. "You saying she was near Wyoming?"

Tito nodded. "We found her in the outskirts of Rawlings. From what Sal told us, she was possibly making her way to you."

Ray pointed at the box between Massimo's hands. "That's a mighty tiny cooler, Tito. What happened to the rest of her?"

"When we found her it was about three days after she turned, I think."

"Oh. Okay." Victoria as a zombie. That wasn't something he had thought about. "Show me."

Massimo donned a pair of latex gloves. Once a zombie was non-functional (dead), the risk of contagion would fall to zero. But that didn't mean that _touching_ one was any less repellent to the living. There was a quick hiss followed by the stench of rotting flesh and formaldehyde that made Ray grimace. Massimo dipped his gloved hands into the liquid and brought Victoria's head out of it with excessive carefulness.

Ray let his gaze wander from the jagged edge of the neck stump to the top of the head and back again. It was Victoria, all right. Her black hair, once curly was now a mass of knots and leaves. That porcelain skin that had mesmerized Benny all those years back had turned green. There was some mold around her mouth. It was the eyes, those dead, glassy eyes, what gave Ray's stomach enough incentive to start rioting.

A bullet hole marred what had once been a smooth forehead.

And like that, one more chapter of his connection to Chicago and to his life before faded into a corner of his mind. Ray wondered what Benny would have said about this.


End file.
